English Clubs

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City started the process of withdrawing from the breakaway European Super League on Tuesday less than 72 hours after agreeing to join, with Chelsea also reported to be quitting in a major blow for the proposed new competition.

City confirmed they wanted to pull out while fellow English club Chelsea were reported by local media to be preparing the paperwork to leave a project backed by U.S. investment bank JP Morgan and headed by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

Following Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Leeds United in Premier League action on Monday, we finally got down to business. Despite there being no official word on the start date of the newly formed European Super League, we do know that the league is now official and our worst dreams have been realized.

The cat is out of the bag as 12 “leading European clubs” have thrown it all away in pursuit of securing the most gluttonous bag in the history of football. It’s difficult to see these historic institutions — Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan among them — as football clubs at this point; they’re self-serving vehicles of greed that operate as welfare for billionaires. We should amend the “FC” abbreviation on these clubs’ names accordingly.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you're aware of the biggest disgrace in the history of this sport. 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs announced plans to create their own European Super League.

Fans, former players and others vehemently denounced the situation with some seeing the move as the beginning of the end for the sport.

Following are the ownership details and Champions League records of the 12 top European clubs who announced on Sunday the launch of a breakaway Super League, and similar details on Paris St Germain and Bayern Munich, two major European clubs not taking part in the Super League:

Who Would Be In European Super League?

ARSENAL

Before Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said he’d “lose the team” if he didn’t start American keeper Zack Steffen vs Chelsea. In the end, the decision may have lost the game.

Steffen made a positioning error to allow Chelsea to score the only goal in 1-0 defeat on Saturday at Wembley, costing the Citizens a chance at a rare quadruple. Steffen, who was otherwise faultless and moments later made a one-on-one save to atone, will no doubt rue his moment of indecision that allowed Hakim Ziyech a tap-in. 

LIVERPOOL, April 16 (Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane moved clear at the top of this season's Premier League scoring charts but his brace in a 2-2 draw at Everton was overshadowed by a late injury on Friday.

Kane took his tally to 21 for the season with a goal in each half but Gylfi Sigurdsson also scored twice for the hosts in a draw that did little for either side's fading top-four hopes.

Worryingly for Tottenham, and England, Kane hobbled off in stoppage time with what appeared to be an ankle injury.